Traditionally hair conditioners have used a combination of cationic surfactants and long chain fatty alcohols to provide a desirable viscosity and an opaque appearance. It is generally believed that the conditioning benefit is mainly due to the deposition of lamellar gel phase formed by a mixture of alkyl cationic quaternary ammonium compound and fatty alcohol. In most U.S. conditioners dialkyl cationic quat is used, whereas monoalkyl quat is used in most European formulations. The difference between these two systems is that the dialkyl quat can form a lamellar gel phase by itself while the monoquat is too water soluble to do so alone and requires the addition of fatty alcohol to create the lamellar gel structure.
Recent results suggest that to achieve the best instrumental wet combing for conditioners, less fatty alcohol is preferred. However, it is also known that taking fatty alcohol out of the dialkyl-based conditioners results in a translucent and thin product. These attributes are considered negatives by consumers. Therefore a problem in the art has been to thicken and opacify the non-fatty alcohol containing lamellar system. In the present invention, the compositions have both high viscosity and opacity through the use of a high internal phase water-in-oil emulsion with the lamellar gel particles dispersed inside the internal water phase.
The following is a list of patents in this field.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,622; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,021; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,246; PA1 EP 0435483; PA1 JP 10137576; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,831; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,844; PA1 EP 160430; PA1 JP 7165529; PA1 Japanese Patent Application Kokai 3-193718 (published Aug. 23, 1991); and PA1 JP 2068137 PA1 a) about 40 to 95% aqueous phase comprising (i) water and (ii) a cationic surfactant, capable of forming lamellar dispersion, typically about 0.1 to about 10% of the aqueous phase PA1 b) about 0.5 to about 30% oil, comprising a volatile silicone compound, a nonvolatile silicone compound, a volatile hydrocarbon compound, a nonvolatile hydrocarbon compound, or a mixture thereof. PA1 c) about 0.1 to about 20% silicone surfactant. PA1 d) optional compounds are those compounds that cannot form a lamellar phase alone, but can participate in the formation of a lamellar phase in the presence of cationic surfactants, in a amount of 0 to about 10%, and preferably about 0.1 to 5% by weight of the aqueous phase. Exemplary classes of such compounds includes di-long chain alkyl amines (i.e. C.sub.10 to C.sub.22), long chain fatty alcohols (i.e. C.sub.10 to C.sub.22 ), ethoxylated fatty alcohols. PA1 a) about 1 to about 6% cationic surfactant in the aqueous phase PA1 b) about 0 to about 10% silicone oil or about 0 to about 10% hydrocarbon oil with the proviso that the silicone oil and the hydrocarbon oil cannot both be 0. PA1 c) about 0.4 to about 7% silicone surfactant
The present invention is directed to new opaque conditioning water in oil emulsion compositions that are esthetically acceptable to consumers, improve the wet combing and dry combing properties of hair, leave the dry hair with satisfactory cosmetic and physical properties. These compositions are easy to rinse, and leave the hair with a soft dry feel.